Empirical year, 97.
7 months after the incident of Yeomchon
Oranbus, the capital city of Krounen.
The Royal court.
"What is there to know? Those guys are on holiday, wasting the food and the gold of the empire." It was followed by a long silence.
'Why that little piece of sh*t?'
'Why is he even here?'
Everyone's thought was along the same line but none dared to voice it. It wasn't any minister or any noble, the one dare to say such words was the court jester and for some unknown reason the emperor was too fond of him.
All of them were in the presence Emperor Kaiser. Even if he was not occupying the highest spot of the royal court, with the dominant aura around no one would dare to disrespect him. It wasn't much above the ground, nor there was a golden throne. But...
"Assistant Minister of War, can you explain, what does this silence imply?" His simple question murdered the whispers that was spreading through the court.
"Highness we have good news. The Moon general have reached the first capital of Godola, the city of Ceblos. It took only 4 months to reach the capital. Not only the general beat the 20,000 Bosonic archers those were stationed the city, but he also pushed the 50,000 of the Knight Templars, those came to their aid." The minister was all smile, but the emperor didn't respond.
The reason behind the emperor's dissatisfaction was clear to all of them. It was putting a strain of the empire's economy. It was not where it was too deep, but the Emperor was keen about the slightest change in the Empire.
"What about the other fronts?" The highness asked in a solemn voice, but the minister could even frown in front of him. Each and every one of them was aware of the situation of the fronts, other than the Moon General none was able to produce any solid result.
They knew about it, so did the Emperor. There was nothing that can escape this eyes and ears. But bringing that up in the royal court only mean one thing; there will be the consequence.
"On Torria, The general of West won the battle of Eale plane. Conquered the cities of Yromcheon, Yeongjang, Pisa, Roirus, Wang. He was fighting at the city of Paeng. It won't be long before he could conquer it too."
"What about Cantela?" The bomb was dropped as soon as he finished.
"The General of North conquered the city of Gourgos and Hipodonas. But from the city of Hipodonas the plane of Myra begins, and against the Knight Templar the General was unable to do anything."
There was pin drop silence throughout the royal court, not even the ministers are daring to take a breath.
"Didn't The Moon general won the city of the Gourgos?" Before anybody could respond, the Emperor gave an eye to the Court jester. If it was any other time then the ministers would have been happy, but they knew very well that he just angered the Emperor more.
"The Moon General will stay at the Ceblos. Secure the city, and secure every city between Ceblos and the border. Then he can return to the capital." Everyone was listening to his every word carefully, not daring to miss a single word.
"The General of West have 6 months, he has to capture Na before that. Send the general of East to Cantela, after handing over the charge general of the North will return to the capital."
'The Generation Purge'. That is what people call it. Everybody knew clearly that with the rise of the new emperor a change will come. It happened for both the emperor who came before him and was happening again. It came late but it came at last.
The first to fall from the grace was the General of North. The four cardinal generals were the four pillars of the army. Their position was not something that could be moved so easily. But the verdict sealed the fate of the General of North.
On the other hand, a Moon general was rising in fame. There were many, those protested against the Moon general's posting as commander-in-chief at the Godola front but the results spoke for itself. He was the first one to succeed. Everybody knew the new emperor preferred the Moon general who grew up with the emperor over, the old one.
The situation of the general of West was neither good nor bad. Though it sounded like he won many of the city actually only 3 of them have any strategic value to its location.
There was no one who could say anything about the order of the emperor all they can do is to obey.
***********
[Analysis complete.]
[Creating the first Spell essence]
[Time Required: 6 hours 14 Minutes 57 seconds]
Kinoya almost to shout in joy, alas, he was holding the talwar, that was plunged in the crystal. Still, he was relieved.
Even after 4 years of training, he was never able to create the spell essence. Though the old man had said that it was little hard for a little boy to comprehend a spell essence but he wasn't satisfied. How hard could it be for a person who had three or four lives? But, he had found out by the hard way.
For 4 years he trained inside the gravity domain of Varytita, but never able to comprehend the gravity domain. But when he plunged it in the magic crystal source, things had changed. The energy inside the Varytita became unstable, affecting the whole city of Yeomcheon.
But he was a man without any prior knowledge of magic. He didn't even know what is a spell essence much less comprehend it. But that all change due to Varytita's way to absorb the magic crystal energy. Rather than absorbing the whole energy at once, it had corrupted the magic crystal and made it on its own, then absorbed it slowly.
The magic crystal became the bigger version of Varytita, affecting gravity around it. With each influxes of energy, it was creating magic circle after magic circle that incorporated the effect of gravity.
It did the trick. At first symbols of unknown language started to appear on the surface of the energy crystal. Kinoya was unable to read it but with the repeated appearance, the effect was becoming clear. With the first confirmation message from the system, he understood those were the things that produce the spell essence. He continued to study the symbols as it started to become more complex over the time. He didn't know how much time has passed. But...
[Unable to create Spell essence]
[Initiating…]
[Failed…]
[Initiating...]
Kinoya could feel his consciousness was fading away in the middle of the constant battering of the mechanical voice. Before he knew it he was standing in the mage space again.
Nothing much of it changed till now. The man was still in sleep on the broadest bench in the space. The chalice of water was still there with constant heart beat.. The dark space was dark as usual. All was same, except the constant struggling and the blinking of the mud slime on the table.
It was in pain. Its puppy dog eye pleaded to Kinoya for a moment before it crumbled again in pain. But Kinoya didn't know what to do.
[Unable to find the suitable element to bond]
[Searching…]
'Searching for an element?' Are those things elements? He can understand the chalice of water represent the element of water, mud slime is earth but what the hell that man represent?
[Unable to find the suitable element to bond]
[Searching…]
'Now is not the time to think.' He could guess what he could do. The talwar name is Varytita which means gravity in an ancient language. And what goes with gravity?
Kinoya stated to move towards the earth slime. It also tried its best to reach out for Kinoya but unfortunately, it couldn't leave the table. Kinoya moved and touched it. Nothing happened like last time, rather Kinoya could feel his mana was flowing from him to the earth slime.
At first, Kinoya was surprised to see that his mana is black. But upon closer inspection, he could see it was not just black rather it was the black smoke itself. He was afraid at first but the blissful expression on the face of the slime relieved him.
After an unknown amount of time the flow stopped. What greeted him was the black crystal eyes of the slime that jumped towards him from the table. It was perfect slime who just found its playmate, but, before he knew it the slime jumped back on the table and melted away on the table.
[Suitable element is found]
[Beginning the creating sequence]